Lethal Seasons (A Changed World Book 1) (6 page)

“Population numbers were no longer available after the third year. Cities emptied out into the suburbs, suburbs emptied into the countryside. People were on the move, and there was no way to track them.”

History of a Changed World,
Angus T. Moss

Nick drove up the river road toward the settlement of Riverbank. It was a relief to put some distance between them and the dead men. He hoped whatever Wisp was sensing wasn’t too serious. That thought made him shake his head. He was trusting a biobot, believing that he had some kind of extrasensory skill. There was a sincerity about Wisp that made Nick want to trust him. Unless that was another weird skill, and it was all manipulation. He didn’t even know if biobots could do things like that. There had been some blood-curdling rumors of supernatural powers that Nick had put down to idle minds. But now that he’d experienced it himself, he had to wonder how much of those rumors was true.

The other side of it was the possibility that a human settlement was in trouble. If there was a chance that he could help out, he couldn’t pass on it. And if it meant fighting the bastards who had hurt the boy, he wouldn’t mind leaving a few bruises of his own.

Nick looked over at his passenger. Wisp had his eyes closed, a frown creasing his forehead. “Anything more?” he asked, feeling doubtful and hopeful at the same time.

“Pain. Fear. Anger.” Wisp shook his head like a dog shedding water. “I can decipher no more. Perhaps death.”

“That doesn't sound good. How close are we?”

“Very.” Wisp glanced back to the children. He leaned toward Nick and lowered his voice. “Riverbank knows me. I believe they sent Lily to me. If the hunters would do that to a child.” He pointed to the back seat. “What would they do the adults in that settlement?”

Nick had no doubts on that account. He wanted to find out what was driving this. Why were these men hunting the kids? “How are you with a gun?” Nick asked, but was pretty sure he knew the answer.

“Accurate.” Wisp went into the back and opened the weapons locker.

Giving a weapon to a biobot was breaking a slew of laws. Laws that no one was around to enforce anymore. Just being without a keeper would have earned Wisp a death sentence before Zero Year. For a second, Nick thought about calling Wisp back. Refusing to arm him. Something told him that Wisp would acquiesce. But that would leave Nick walking blind into a dangerous situation, without adequate backup. They needed to be prepared for the worst. That meant arming the biobot, but Nick didn’t feel happy about it.

He wanted more information. Trouble at the settlement didn’t automatically mean that the mercenaries were involved. They could be having some sort of internal struggle. He didn't want to get caught up in a settler's coup d’état. Part of him knew he was spinning tales because his nerves were on edge. The quicker he got into it, the better he’d feel. Lights in the distance showed him that the settlement was right on the road. The bloody bodies in the road showed him that Wisp was absolutely right. He stopped the van and turned the headlights full on the two men bleeding in the dirt. Multiple gunshot wounds on each of them and no weapons in their hands.

“They are dead,” Wisp said

“You're sure?”

“I cannot feel anything from them. But I can feel great pain from the settlement. Someone is being tortured.”

“Can you tell how many mercenaries are here?”

“No. There is too much emotion. It blurs the...” Wisp grunted, his shoulders hunching. “Someone has died. Go up the driveway.”

Nick drove off the road, carefully avoiding the bodies. Once past them, he pulled into the narrow strip of asphalt that led back to a manufacturing plant that looked to be ten to fifteen years old. The profile was lower. No storm baffles, but there was a protected solar array in use. That explained why the place was lit up like a train station. They passed another unarmed body in the weeds by the side of the road, and Nick lost all compunction about arming Wisp. He gritted his teeth against the angry words rising in him. When he pulled in front of the building, he saw an identical black van and two more dead on the front steps. One was a woman. Nick could feel his neck muscles knot as his anger increased. There was no possible reason for the deaths of all these unarmed civilians.

“I would not kill indiscriminately,” Wisp said, as if in answer to Nick's emotion. “That vehicle is empty,” he added, answering Nick’s next question. Wisp opened the roof hatch and flipped a lever that raised a step beneath it. He was holding a long gun. Some kind of rifle.

Nick turned back to watch the building. “You got a plan?”

“Is it the bad men?” Lily asked, her voice thin and fearful.

“Stay with your brother,” Wisp said calmly. “Nick and I will take care of this.”

Nick looked back in time to see Lily’s face as she nodded to the biobot. There was so much trust there, it tightened his throat. She believed that they would keep her safe. He had to make sure not to fail.

“Someone approaches,” Wisp warned.

Nick shifted his attention to the building. The door opened and a man in body armor, with an automatic weapon hanging from his shoulder, came out. Nick reached for the gun Wisp had given him. He checked the ammunition, his hands moving over the weapon automatically. Some habits became ingrained.

The man frowned at the van. “What're you doing...” He raised the weapon as he squinted into the headlights.

Nick flinched at the report above his head. The mercenary was down with a bullet hole in his forehead. A calm part of his mind noted that Wisp was an excellent shot. A less calm part was screaming that a biobot with weapons training was taking headshots at humans. It was like a headline from the supermarket scandal sheets in the years after biobots hit the market. They were
More Than Human
and
Taking Over the World
.

The building’s front exploded out, as two men shot their way out of the building. Glass flew from doors and windows. The violent roar of automatic weapons tore through the night. Bullets pinged off the windshield, even as Nick ducked. Bullet proof, apparently.

One man went down. The other ran at the car, gun blazing. Nick opened the door, and used it as cover to returned fire. A hot line of pain seared his scalp. He aimed low, below the armor. The man stumbled, but the gun kept roaring. Nick ducked back behind the door. He braced himself for another attempt. He was panting and his heart was pounding. It had been a hell of a long time since he'd been in a fire fight. He took a deep breath, but before he could move, the night went quiet.

He checked. The man was down. Inside the van, he heard Wisp say something to Lily. The side panel opened and Wisp stepped out. Blood dripped from a wound on his right arm. He held his bandana out to Nick.

“How bad?” Nick asked as he tied the bandana tightly around Wisp's arm.

“It went through. It will heal.”

Nick stared at him, shaken by the unreal calm. “Don't you feel pain?”

“Very much so. But we don't have time for it right now.” Wisp walked past Nick, and collected the weapons from the dead mercenaries.

Nick hurried to catch up with Wisp, so they entered the building together. The lobby looked like it had once been a reception area. Now it was full of drying racks that held fish. The smell was overpowering. Five more civilians lay dead on the floor. Racks had been thrown down, fish scattered across the floor and lying in puddles of blood. Nick checked every body. All died of multiple gunshot wounds. All were unarmed. He stood over a woman, her arms thrown wide, eyes open, mouth agape. She looked astonished that she was dead. He had talked to her about fishing when he’d been here, only days ago. A fist clenched tightly around his heart, but this wasn’t the time to mourn.

“This way.” Wisp went through an archway into a carpeted corridor that led to offices.

Rooms with glass-paneled fronts and solid wooden doors lined the hallway. Halfway down the corridor a doorway was open, the glass wall shattered into pellets across the floor. Tied to the doorjamb was a young man, bloodied and limp.

“Dead,” Wisp said as Nick stopped. He checked for a pulse anyway. It was just like what the others had done to William.

The next room held hostages. Nick saw Wisp recoil from the doorway. “Too much fear,” he said backing up. He turned to Nick. “The only ones left.”

Wide eyes above gagged mouths, the stench of sweat and urine, muffled keening, the sounds and smells hit Nick hard. He wondered what another layer of emotion on top of it all would feel like. “Check the rest of the place anyway,” he told Wisp.

Nick took a quick survey. Two women, two kids and a bloodied man who looked unconscious. He chose the woman whose brown eyes looked more angry than scared. “I'm here to help,” he said. He cut her loose and put the knife in her hands. “Hurry.”

He bent over the man. Alive, but badly beaten. He'd need Wisp's help to carry him to the car.

“You're the guy from High Meadow.”

Nick turned to see the angry woman holding his knife out, but not to return it. “I’m Nick.”

The other woman and children, now free of their bonds, huddled behind her. The hand holding the knife was shaking but Nick didn’t doubt her intent. He quickly thought through a couple things that might calm her down. “Lily's safe. Wisp found William.”

“Thank God!” She lowered the knife. “I'm Jean.”

“There's a car out front, Jean. Can you get these people into it? Wisp and I will carry him.”

“Bruno,” she said with a hitch in her voice. “He's our leader.” She pointed to the hallway. “His son...”

Nick shook his head. “I'm sorry. There's no one else alive.”

Her eyes brimmed with tears, and it looked like she might give in to the grief. She scrubbed her face, then gathered the others. Wisp entered the room before Nick could call him. They carried Bruno out to the car, following the women and children. Jean shepherded them past the blood and violence, their grief redoubling at every body they passed. A brisk wind rattled the fallen racks and sent leaves flying. They stepped over the broken glass of the front doors, the bodies on the steps were the last straw for the other woman. She collapsed, sobbing.

The wind shook the trees and plucked at their clothing. Grit flew up into Nick’s face making him squint. He paused next to her, shifting his grip on Bruno. “We need to get the kids out of here,” he said firmly. That seemed to galvanize her. She staggered to her feet. Lily opened the side door as they approached. No one spoke as they climbed into the van. They lay Bruno on the floor next to William. He looked to be in as bad shape from an equally brutal beating. Jean helped herself to the medical supplies that Wisp had previously laid out for William.

As Nick got in the front, Wisp stepped back out to investigate the other vehicle. He returned with an armload of supplies which he dumped on the floor. The second trip over was for weapons. The third time to disable it. Nick wished he could have taken that van, too. It was a waste of a perfectly good vehicle.

Wisp secured all the doors and took his seat. In a moment he had mapping options open on the dashboard screen. “Where is your settlement?”

Nick shot him a startled look. “Why?”

“Is that not where you wish to bring the women and children?”

Nick mulled that over. He wasn't sure that he wanted to bring a biobot back to High Meadow. Angus would be delighted. There couldn’t be very many of them left. And Angus loved a good surprise. But Nick didn't know what had happened here. He didn’t know who these mercenaries were or why they wanted the children. High Meadow had little more in the way of defenses than Riverbank. He didn’t want to endanger his home.

Wisp leaned forward and spoke very softly. “I do not feel any more of those men in the area. If we leave now, they should not be able to track us.”

That reminded Nick that they needed to put some distance between them and the latest set of dead bodies. Nick started the van. He turned around in the parking lot and headed back down the driveway. Where could he take frightened women, children and two wounded? Ordinarily he’d head for a train station, but Wisp said they were watched. Something he used to consider a good thing. Now he wondered who was watching them.

He stopped at the bottom of the driveway. Angus would take these people in without any hesitation. And if Wisp could be trusted, and there were no other mercenaries left in the area, there was a good chance they could get away clean.

“Nick?” Lily came into the front pulling food out of a wrapper. “Look it’s weird. Not Crunch. But it tastes good.” She broke it in half showing him brown chunks in a red sauce.

He stared at the pocket of dough she gave him. Could it be a calzone? Things kept going sideways. None of the new rules seemed to apply. Here was food he hadn’t seen in a decade. Armored men with shiny new vehicles. Blatant killings. His familiar world turned upside down, and he felt a sudden deep need to talk to Angus.

Wisp touched his arm pulling him out of his swirling thoughts. He pointed to the map he’d brought up. “We are here. Where do you want to take them?”

Nick had a sudden crushing sense of responsibility for the fragile freight he carried. Since the death of his family, he hadn't been responsible for anyone else. That's why he liked being on the road, looking out for just himself. Now he had women and children and two badly injured people to protect. It frightened him in a way that a gunfight never would.